South Branch intelligencer. [volume] (Romney, Va. [W. Va.]) 1830-1896, 1887-09-30
POSTAL THIEVES.
How Dishonest Postoffice En-
ployes are Sometimes Caught.
Detective Work of the New
York Office.

There Is one place in postoffice ser.
vice where stealing can be carried on
with little fear OF detection, y said one
OF the division superintendent in the
New York Office to Sun reporter re-
Gently, ''anl that is in tho registered
/ letter department. The opinion Of al
most every one is that the safest way
10 send a letter or package is to reg
istcr it. But there is loopbool
through which the mail can slim with
great ease The weak part of the
system is in the receiving department.
Say that registered package 4 re-
ceived at the postoflice from some
place out OF the city. 1t passes to the
clerks In the regular way for distribu-
ton. 1t one OF them is dishonest he
collars the package and, of course, does
not send the notice to the person To
whom II was directed. Not receiving
any notice the owner does not call Mt
the office for the package, and the per
son sending it, having perfect confidence
In the delivery system, believes it to
have been safely delivered. No com
plants are made to the office and there
no trouble. All the thief has to do
Is to satisfy the department which has a
check upon him, and this is done by
forging the name of the owner of the
package to a receipt and sending it to
the proper authorities"
rs 1T easy for clerk to pick out a
letter containing money!"
Eyes. They will do it rs certainly as
cat will scent fish head in an ash bar
rel. It's all done by the sense of touch.
A clerk must not be seen weighing up
letters, but must go through pile with
all possible speed. AS his fingers glide
quickly over the letters, if he has been
long at the business, he will know intu-
itively letter which contains anything
that makes an uneven fold within. as is
usually the case with money 1t may
not be money, but if it feels like it that
Is enough, and the letter is dextrously
dropped on the floor or slipped into a
convenient place, where it can be picked
up without exciting suspicion"
"How are the thieves usually de-
tected!"
by means of dccoy letters. These
letters are fixed up in the inspectors
office. Marked money is put into them.
A bag that comes to the office is opened
and the decoys are put in before the bag
Is sent to the distributing department..
The bag comes to the suspected clerk in
the regular way. Search is made for
the dccoy in the place where it should
be If it had been properly distributed.
III not found the clerk is searched, and
IL the right person was suspected the
money will be found on him. II is hard
to work decoy on an expert thief. ]
know of one man who passed thirty five
decoys before he was caught. In fact
he let them slip by so regularly that he
disarmed suspicion and the decoys were
tried on every other clerk. Complaints
were coming in all the time and the case
was puzzling.
None of the clerks would touch n
decoy. Finally the first man suspected
took one, and was arrested. He con-
fessed, and said that he could tell de-
| coy every time, because it did not have
the marks of travel on it, and the stamp
ing was smooth and sharp, showing that
a stamp rarely used had been applied to
the letter, and not fhc one regularly
used in the course of business.
There is more or less stealing all the
time in the Postoflicc, but such close
watch is kept on the men that the
amount stolen is now comparatively
small. Thieves crop out in tho most I'M
expected places, and men in good posi-
tons are sometimes caught sacrificing
their good name, home, and future for
petty sums of money"